In the current economic climate, increasing sales is crucial to achieving success. 

Staying successful depends on your capacity to help your customers succeed. 

In March 2020, uncertainty about customer churn was trending. Customer retention was the key priority of SaaS enterprises during uncertain times. 

The pandemic compelled marketing teams to review their customer success manual. 

Let’s examine five essential client retention methods from the manual. 

#1: Identify the new ‘Economic Buyer’ and build a reputation 

Historically, retention consisted of freebies. However, retention is an event that incorporates business pain, return on investment, difficult decision-making, economic buyers, etc. 

Economic buyers are those with the authority to ‘release the funds.’ Hence, their decision becomes essential during an economic downturn. 

AI-based sales intelligence platforms with buyer intelligence engine provide insights into prospect organizations’ decision-makers. 

Sales teams can use these insights to: 

• Track executives to build rapport, 
• Understand high-opportunity buyers, 
• Evaluate their power and gauge approachability, 
• Craft hyper-targeted pitches, and 
• Personalize sales strategies using psychographic data. 

These churn reduction tips could help you sell to power:

#2: Understand buyers’ roles and abilities 

Know who you are speaking with and what concerns they have. 

• Renewal conversations are now happening at the CFO or Director of Finance level. They have different expectations for whom you must have a strategic conversation. 
• Use data to construct a narrative linking it to the key performance indicators. 
• Create engagement by allowing the conversation to run naturally and organically, as opposed to treating such conversation to acquire further victories 
• Recognize what is happening in their organization and understand what has changed over the last few months. 
• Provide a new piece of information so that they get value out of the conversation. 

Effectively manage the presentation time and consider a joint presentation with a client organization representative. And begin with the information executives desire to hear. 

#3: Align solutions with strategic goals 

While IT professionals understand technicality, the C-suite understands business challenges. So, talk like the person you want to sell to. You must sound like the C-suite if you talk to them. 

Reason: The customer’s challenge should not be taken at face value. Customer turnover could be reduced by delving deeper to uncover more strategic value. 

#4: ‘Prevent Change’ for your renewal 

While selling to new consumers, your objective must be to alter the status quo, also known as ‘loss aversion.’ Your product is the answer to what failed for them. 

However, your product must not alter the status quo for renewals. It should resist change. Maintain the status quo and prevent churn. 

#5: Segment customer base to surface risk and growth 

Split your customer base into two segments: growth and expansion opportunities Vs. risk potential. 

Understanding the pandemic’s effect on your customers’ businesses, classify them as negatively affected, neutrally affected, or positively affected. 

Engage now with clients who have growth potential with your firm and are neutrally or positively impacted by COVID-19. 

Finally, as expansion is the key to obtaining a great deal of value, you must attempt to expand clients who are not receiving value from your product. 

Implementing these five tactics will result in a significant improvement. While doing so, monitor customer interactions for early detection of churn signs and other KPIs. 

Draup for Sales is a sales intelligence platform that provides focused insights on emerging startups, businesses, and relevant stakeholders. 

Its buyer intelligence assists sales teams to 

• Identify key decision-makers 
• Learn their attributes and interests, 
• Understand their influence for further engagement, and 
• Solve the prospect organization’s pain points. 

Fortune 500 organizations use Draup’s customer insights to start targeted conversations that offer value, resulting in increased upsells and lower customer attrition.